An Economics Word List for Japanese Learners

Introduction

An elusive goal for Japanese university students is ability to communicate about their majors in English. To do so, beyond the basic vocabulary of communication and general academics, learners must master the relevant technical vocabulary. I have assembled an Economics Word List (EWL) for economics majors using a glossary-based approach. Three diverse glossaries from prominent sources were examined: The Economist magazine, Mankiw's (2001) Principles of Economics, and Stiglitz' (1997) Economics. It was found that lexical borrowing in Japanese economics resulted in few cognates. Moreover, the abstract nature of economics and its competing theories likely contributed to great variation among the glossaries and an inflated lexicon of terminology; this was dealt with by having an economics specialist delete terms felt non-essential. To further enhance the EWL, the 891 terms were divided into sublists: 70 terms overlapping in all three glossaries; 163 terms overlapping in two; 67 polysemic terms with additional high-frequency meanings; 80 terms that were cognates; and the 511 remaining terms. While the first four sublists warrant classroom attention, this is not necessarily true of the fifth.